Film students gather Sunday to pick up tips from the Marin County twins who made "Touching Home." As mentors for 25 Latino teenagers enrolled in California Film Institute's "Future Professionals" program, Logan andNoah Millercome well qualified. Despite a lack of film school education, on-the-job training or connections, they managed to write, direct, produce and star in "Touching Home."

The 2010 movie blended a baseball narrative with the true story of the twins' homeless father, played by Ed Harris. The brothers followed it with 2013 Sundance entry "Sweetwater." Now living in Los Angeles, they are working on a project for Lars von Trier's Danish producer Peter Garde.

Their advice for indie-minded filmmakers? "Don't rely on anyone else. Don't look to a messiah. If you want to make a movie, produce it yourself. Don't look to somebody else for the solution to whatever problem you're facing. You're the solution."

The filmmakers also stress the value of incremental progress.

"We came from almost complete ignorance, but we were always optimistic that we could put the movie together," Logan says. "Of course, negativity gets thrown at you, so we try always to take one step forward."

Among the first steps they took toward "Touching Home": reading William Goldman's memoir "Adventures in the Screen Trade." Then they wrote the "Touching Home" script. The twins studied DVD commentaries to learn behind-the-scenes craft, won a Panavision Young Filmmakers grant and made a two-minute "proof of concept" teaser to demonstrate their directing skill. After Harris appeared at the 2006 San Francisco International Film Festival, Noah and Logan played their clip for the actor on a laptop set up on a dumpster outside the Castro Theatre.

While the brothers kept firm control of their movie's core concept, they stress the importance of talented collaborators.

"While you want to be self-reliant, at the same time, you're wholly dependent on other people," Noah says. "There's all sorts of contradictory rules, which is part of the insanity of filmmaking."

'Wrenched' closes S.F. Green Film Festival

"Wrenched: The Legacy of the Monkey Wrench Gang" traces the influence of activist writer Edward Abbeyand his comic brand of subversive fiction. Abbey's 1975 novel "The Monkey Wrench Gang" helped inspire an environmental movement that featured tree-spiking, forest occupation and other acts of civil disobedience.

Director ML Lincoln's documentary features archival footage, re-enactments and coverage of Tim DeChristopher, who went to prison after stopping the sale of more than 100,000 acres of Utah public trust lands.

"Wrenched: The Legacy of the Monkey Wrench Gang" plays Wednesday at the S.F. Green Film Festival.

Vancouver is S.F.'s stunt double in 'Godzilla'

San Francisco continues to serve as a premium destination for cinematic monsters and alien beings.

Following big screen attacks in 2013's "Star Trek Into Darkness" and "Pacific Rim," the Bay Area serves this summer as stomping grounds for radioactive reptiles in "Godzilla."

"What we wanted to do was to use the design of the original Godzilla and add as much realism as we could to it," says "Godzilla" visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel.

"Godzilla" was shot on location in Hawaii, Tokyo, Las Vegas and San Diego, but the climactic showdown that takes place in San Francisco was actually filmed in Canada.

As chronicled in "Godzilla: The Art of Destruction" (Insight Editions), downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, doubled for San Francisco's Financial District.

Crew members also re-created a 400-foot stretch of the Golden Gate Bridge on a back lot at the Canadian Motion Picture Park outside of Vancouver.

Additionally, Rygiel explains, "We built the cave in Chinatown where the 'MUTO' monsters lay their eggs. That was a whole stage.

"There were a lot of large-scale sets built for the actors to move around in." {sbox}